Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Will there be a split in the Democratic Party and the growth of a
new party? I think the articles below indicate there may very well be,
but it will take a few election cycles for the process to work itself
out. Think of the Whigs from the mid-1830s to the mid 1850s and the emergence of the new Republican Party from the ashes.

"the
Whigs are best understood as an American major party trying to be many
things to many men, ready to abandon one deeply held ‘conviction’ for
another in the drive for political power.".... history.com

The
articles below are examples of the Clinton/Obama wings striking back.
The first oped appeared in last Friday's NY Times and I read it with my
mouth ajar -- and by the way, our own UFT/NYSUT/AFT pretty well lines up
with the Clinton centrist wing, which used and abandoned labor unions,
especially teachers, no matter our union leaders' rhetoric.

Remember
that the "new" Republican Party captured the presidency in 1860 by
taking a stronger stand on slavery -- a radical position at the time --
and basically kept power until FDR in 1932 other then the Wilson years
(1912-20) and 2 terms by Grover Cleveland, who was a conservative
Democrat -- or a quasi Republican.

An ass looks to chew its own ass

The center Dems turned away from the New
Deal, as indicated by the NY Times opinion piece by Clinton apparatchik
Mark Penn and, holy shit, a dug up Andrew Stein. I mean, how desperate
are they getting? Below that read the NY Observer piece on how they are
running a primary candidate against Bernie in Vermont. That should end
up well for the Dems. Note that Jared Kushner owns the NY Observer so
anything you read there should be taken as working in the Trump
interests.

Back to the Center, Democrats

By MARK PENN and ANDREW STEIN

JULY 6, 2017

The path
back to power for the Democratic Party today, as it was in the 1990s,
is unquestionably to move to the center and reject the siren calls of
the left, whose policies and ideas have weakened the party.

Really?
How many state houses do the Dems have? How about the routes in
Congress since the 90s when the Dems lost control of Congress in the
majority of terms since then?

In
the early 1990s, the Democrats relied on identity politics, promoted
equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity and looked to
find a government solution for every problem. After years of leftward
drift by the Democrats culminated in Republican control of the House
under Speaker Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton moved the party
back to the center in 1995 by supporting a balanced budget, welfare
reform, a crime bill that called for providing 100,000 new police
officers and a step-by-step approach to broadening health care. Mr.
Clinton won a resounding re-election victory in 1996 and Democrats were
back.

Every issue cited was related to the Dems losing in 2016.

But
the last few years of the Obama administration and the 2016 primary
season once again created a rush to the left. Identity politics, class
warfare and big government all made comebacks. Candidates inspired by
Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and a host of
well-funded groups have embraced sharply leftist ideas. But the results
at the voting booth have been anything but positive: Democrats lost
over 1,000 legislative seats across the country and control of both
houses of Congress during the Obama years. And in special elections for
Congress this year, they failed to take back any seats held by
Republicans.

This
is a remarkable 2-faced turn of what really happened -- the Clintons
did all of the above they are claiming Bernie did. And they attack
Bernie with their other face by saying he didn't pay enough attention to
identity politics and thus lost the black vote.

Central
to the Democrats’ diminishment has been their loss of support among
working-class voters, who feel abandoned by the party’s shift away from
moderate positions on trade and immigration, from backing police and
tough anti-crime measures, from trying to restore manufacturing jobs.
They saw the party being mired too often in political correctness,
transgender bathroom issues and policies offering more help to
undocumented immigrants than to the heartland.

Wait a minute. They are saying this happened without the Clintons? Are they blaming Obama too? The world is turning upside down.

In the next section, they go right at the New Deal and join the Republicans in the attack on government. Astounding.

Bigger
government handouts won’t win working-class voters back. This is the
fallacy of the left, believing that voters just need to be shown how
much they are getting in government benefits. In reality, these voters
see themselves as being penalized for maintaining the basic values of
hard work, religion and family. It’s also not all about guns and
abortion. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both won working-class voters
despite relatively progressive views on those issues. Today, identity
politics and disdain for religion are creating a new social divide that
the Democrats need to bridge by embracing free speech on college
campuses and respect for Catholics and people of other faiths who feel
marginalized within the party.

There are plenty of good issues Democrats should be championing. They
need to reject socialist ideas and adopt an agenda of renewed growth,
greater protection for American workers and a return to fiscal
responsibility. While the old brick-and-mortar economy is being
regulated to death, the new tech-driven economy has been given a pass
to flout labor laws with unregulated, low-paying gig jobs, to
concentrate vast profits and to decimate retailing. Rural areas have
been left without adequate broadband and with shrinking opportunities.
The opioid crisis has spiraled out of control, killing tens of
thousands, while pardons have been given to so-called nonviolent drug
offenders. Repairing and expanding infrastructure, a classic Democratic
issue, has been hijacked by President Trump — meaning Democrats have a
chance to reach across the aisle to show they understand that voters
like bipartisanship.

Immigration
is also ripe for a solution from the center. Washington should restore
the sanctity of America’s borders, create a path to work permits and
possibly citizenship, and give up on both building walls and defending
sanctuary cities. On trade, Democrats should recognize that they can
no longer simultaneously try to be the free-trade party and speak for
the working class. They need to support fair trade and oppose
manufacturing plants’ moving jobs overseas, by imposing new taxes on
such transfers while allowing repatriation of foreign profits. And the
party seems to have forgotten that community policing combined with
hiring more police officers worked in the ’90s — and it will work again
today. It can’t be the party that failed to stop the rising murder
rates in cities like Chicago.

Health
care is the one area where the Democrats have gained the upper hand
and have a coherent message about protecting the working poor from
losing coverage. But the Affordable Care Act needs to be adjusted to
control costs better, lest employer-sponsored health care become
unaffordable. For now, the Democrats are right to hold the line in
defending Obamacare in the face of Republican disunity.

No
single payer for these guys -- let's continue the Clinton folly on
health care. Do they forget that giving in to big Pharm and insurance
companies is the main cause of costs spiraling out of control.

Easily
lost in today’s divided politics is that only a little more than a
quarter of Americans consider themselves liberals, while almost three in
four are self-identified moderates or conservatives. Yet moderate
viewpoints are being given short shrift in the presidential nominating
process. So Democrats should change their rules to eliminate all
caucuses in favor of primaries. Caucuses are largely undemocratic
because they give disproportionate power to left-leaning activists,
making thousands of Democrats in Kansas more influential than millions
of people in Florida.

Twisting history --- hey, did Hilllary lose the Michigan PRIMARY to Bernie? No caucus there.

Mark
Penn served as pollster and senior adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton
from 1995 to 2008. Andrew Stein is a former Manhattan borough
president and New York City Council president.

Opponents believe his ‘divisive politics’ have split the Democratic Party

Vermont resident Jon Svitavsky announced on July 5 that he is challenging Sen. Bernie Sanders in his upcoming re-election in 2018. In his most recent race for re-election, Sanders won over 71 percent of the vote and the Democratic Party didn’t bother to run a candidate. In the 2016 presidential primaries, Sanders received over 86 percent
of the vote in Vermont. Among the small percentage of people who voted
for Hillary Clinton in the state was Svitavsky, a homeless shelter
director who is beginning to receive support from other disgruntled Clinton supporters across the country.

Though
Sanders enjoys overwhelming support in his home state, his political
opponents around the country have isolated and built up naysayers to
diminish his popularity. In June 2016, NBC host Joy Reid did a profile in the Daily Beast on Al Giordano, an anti-Sanders troll who gained a sizable following of Clinton supporters
on Twitter during the primaries. Giordano claimed he would run against
Sanders in 2018 but has yet to file and currently resides in Mexico
City. In February 2016, the Daily Beast ran a hit piece meant
to perpetuate the whitewashing of Sanders’ presidential campaign. It
featured an interview with a black Vermont resident who claimed Sanders
ignored the black community in the state. In October 2016, Politico ran an article featuring quotes from several Vermont Democrats complaining that Sanders wasn’t helping Democrats in Vermont, despite the fact that Sanders made several appearances around the country to campaign on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Now Svitavsky, a Democrat from Bridport, Vermont, is trying to make another case against Sanders.
Vermont Public Radio reported,
“Jon Svitavsky, 59, says he believes that Sanders’ ‘divisive’ politics
have fractured the Democratic Party nationally and paved the way for
the rise of Republican President Donald Trump.” On his Twitter account he has shared blog posts written by other Clinton supporters
attacking Sanders. According to Svitavsky, he was recruited by a group
called Organizing for Democrats-U.S.A to run against Sanders. The
organization isn’t filed with the FEC and has a small following on
Facebook. On its Facebook page on June 15, the day after Sanders voted
against the bill that included sanctions on Russia and Iran, the group posted, “Today OFD represents the Democratic Party candidate
for U.S. Senate in the State of Vermont. That’s the Sanders'(I)
seat. And an actual liberal Democrat from Burlington, Vermont is
running. After Sanders voted to protect Mother Russia today, the
decision was made to make this declaration.” The day before, the
organization published in another post that it is “time for Democrats to
unite against the Bernie Bot elements.”
Svitavsky told Vermont’s
NPR affiliate, “I think Sanders has hurt our country very badly with
what he’s done.” He added, “So not only did Bernie divide
the Democratic Party and what not, but he continues to bash them, even
on the unity tour, saying that Democrats and Republicans are the same,
and they’re not.” Though Bernie Sanders never said that or bashed the party on the DNC Unity Tour, Svitavsky’s biases are shared by several avid Clinton supporters, and he isn’t alone in trying to challenge Sanders.
Folasade Adeluola, a Clinton supporter based in Indiana, also announced she is running to unseat Sanders in 2018. Her campaign website features
a selfie with her and Hillary Clinton. She only has to be a legal
resident of Vermont the day before the election to be eligible for the
Senate seat, capitalizing on the opportunity to represent people of a
state she doesn’t live in.

4 comments:

I couldn't believe that opinion piece in the NYT either. I was getting depressed about the "progressive" losses, but then realized that so many progressive ideas are now mainstream. The foolish centrists are going to be the Grover Cllevelands of the 21st century.

Is the solution for Demmocrats to move closer to the center? Nowadays, it is virtually impossible to distinguish a Democrat from a Republican. Read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander for a concise explanation of the devastating racist effects of Clinton administration policies. Universal health insurance is not a Democratic issue. People screaming at their senators and representatives at town hall meetings all over the country are frequently not Democrats. Pelosi and Schumer do not have a prayer to reinvigorate the Democratic Party. At present, we are facing a second Trump term.

An article in Alternet took down the NYT piece (#5) My favorite line was "a useless, retrograde advice column wasted 800 words describing directives that could’ve been summed up in three: Just become Republicans."http://www.alternet.org/election-03918/democratic-party-such-mess-what-are-we-going-do

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.